A picture of our opinions on local exhibitions

"War and Remembrance" The iconic February 23, 1945 photograph of five Marines and one Navy corpsman raising the American flag on Iwo Jima is perhaps the most grand, dramatic and soul-stirring image of American military action ever captured. It's a surprise, then, to see the earliest known print of that photograph displayed in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's "War and Remembrance" exhibit. The print of the photo, taken by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Joe Rosenthal, is smaller than a postcard. It has the effect of a tightly packed firecracker, which would eventually explode like an atom bomb. Also on display are photographs by Robert Capa, often called the greatest war photographer. His D-Day photos were severely damaged, but the blurriness and high contrast — as seen in a horrifying image of an American soldier swimming to shore — convey the chaos, fear and bravery of that battle. The most stunning image of the exhibit, though, might be one that addresses the casualties of war — Henri Huet's 1966 photo of the body of an American paratrooper killed in action in the jungle near Cambodia, being raised into an evacuation helicopter. It almost looks as if the body is falling — or even diving — in a blissful and selfless act of sacrifice. Through September 16. MFAH Caroline Wiess Law Building, 1001 Bissonnet, 713-639-7300. — TS